


Pet Cats, and Strays

by yoshizora



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 21:10:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21398704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoshizora/pseuds/yoshizora
Summary: Catherine considers herself to be more of a dog person.
Relationships: Catherine/Shamir Nevrand
Comments: 14
Kudos: 176





	Pet Cats, and Strays

**Author's Note:**

> luv these 2
> 
> dogs and cats are equally good

“I wonder who brushes all these animals?” They’re so immaculately _clean_ that anyone would assume they belong to any of the students of the academy. But they’re not pets, just strays. They’re fat, sure, because no one can resist a wagging tail and pleading eyes and the kids tend to be careless about “accidentally” dropping uneaten scraps of food. Some of them even wander right into the dining hall like they own the place. 

Catherine prefers the dogs. The dogs are friendly and will do a little spin if a sliver of dried meat is dangled over their heads. 

Shamir is crouched before a pile of unused crates and barrels. To anyone else passing by, she’d probably look suspicious as hell with her back turned and half-concealed in this shadowy corner, so Catherine stands beside her, against the wall and arms crossed. Just two Knights of Seiros having a casual conversation. Nothing to see, move along.

"I mean, someone's gotta be keeping an eye out for the mange and fleas." 

“Cyril, I bet,” Shamir says. Maybe sarcastically. It’s hard to say. She’s taking her sweet time with the bits of fish, tearing them into tiny little pieces and handing them out one at a time to the squirming pile of kittens. The mother cat watches, unconcerned. 

Catherine wrinkles her nose, but laughs. 

“Really? I would’ve guessed that you’re the culprit. I always figured you liked cats, but this is a side of you I can’t say I was expecting to see.”

“Cats keep themselves clean. No one needs to wash them.” 

“Feeding them, though?”

“I was feeling generous.”

One of the kittens clambers up onto Shamir’s thigh, too impatient and too rambunctious. The other kittens take that cue to follow that fearless charge, and Shamir carefully sits down with her legs crossed, allowing them to climb her. Two of them settle onto her lap, nuzzling against her palms to eat the pieces of fish she’d brought for them, but the rest are now more interested in scaling her arms and shoulders and back with their tiny claws.

“Hey, hey, careful. They might go for your eyes.”

The corners of Shamir’s mouth raise ever so slightly. She looks up at Catherine, _smiling_, even as one of the kittens uses her ear as a foothold to triumphantly hoist itself upon the top of her head. 

_You never smile like that at my jokes!_ Catherine huffs through her nose. Damn cats. 

“Not a fan, Catherine?”

“I’ve always been partial to dogs,” Catherine admits. “Not that I dislike cats, but I don’t think I’d be able to get along with them. I… my family owned a lot of hunting hounds. I grew up right alongside them.”

“Did you sleep in their kennels, too?”

“Don’t even joke like that, Shamir.” Catherine tries very hard not to pout, looking up at the sky instead of the kittens climbing all over her partner. A pair of pegasus knights flies overhead. Dogs and horses and pegasi are one thing, but cats had always been another. Even wyverns are easier to read, in her opinion. “Anyway, like I said, I don’t have a problem with cats. I’m just more of… a dog person, you could say.”

Shamir doesn’t bother looking up or asking why. “That’s a shame. I thought we would have a cat, when we live together.”

While she says that so matter-of-factly, Shamir carefully places each kitten back onto the ground in front of their mother before straightening up. She stretches her arms, fluid and graceful (like a… _oh_, Catherine inwardly sighs) before walking away without so much as a glance over her shoulder. The mother cat and all her kittens follow her, tails held high like little flags. Catherine is so bewildered by the sight that it doesn’t even completely register with her at first, left dumbfounded. 

“… Why not both?” Catherine calls after her. She blinks. Then blinks again. Then runs after Shamir and the family of cats, heat rushing up her neck. 

“Hold on— what do you mean _when we live together?!_ Shamir?! Shamir!!”

**Author's Note:**

> ty teires for the [illustration](https://twitter.com/teir3s/status/1194316799937933317)!! :sob:


End file.
